Program

Program of Study

The Academy’s mission is to educate, enlighten, and empower young women. To that end, with considerable guidance from educators who come to truly know and appreciate each young woman will develop an individualized program of study to explore her interests, build on her innate skills, and prepare her for college and adulthood. Students are urged to supplement their course options through guided independent study, college courses, online coursework, intensive summer programs, and other means.

A four-year lock-step program of study that all students must follow is dis-empowering and thus antithetical to our mission. Our young women exercise considerable autonomy over their studies and demonstrate their achievement of learning objectives in various ways. Students who have greater ownership of their learning are more deeply engaged. They develop their public presentation skillsand the power of their presence.

Students meet and exceed, in most cases, the admissions requirements of most universities. The Academy offers leveled mathematics classes, Spanish on site and other languages online or through other means, and lab sciences. In Humanities, our 9th graders study the history of the world, world literature, religion, and pay particular attention to the role of women in each period and culture. Our students understand what it means to think like a scientist, historian, artist or visionary. They learn not by memorizing facts and parroting them back to the teacher on a test, but by exploring questions that they generate, analyzing artifacts and documents, reflecting on their findings, and presenting them in a professional way. The Academy Alumnae are well prepared to live and lead exemplary lives and solve problems that matter.

Features of The Academy Program

The Certificate Program

We honor the different gifts and interests that our young women bring to the Academy by tailoring each student’s program specifically for her as much as possible. Students interested in pursuing a particular field in greater depth have the opportunity to create a systematic Certificate Program combining Academy courses with engagement outside of school. Merely taking a course or two beyond what a student would expect to do in the process of meeting graduation requirements is insufficient to earn a certificate. Intentional participation, significant effort, reflection, the production of a comprehensive project and its public presentation are essential features. For example, to earn a Latin American Studies Certificate, students must demonstrate advanced proficiency in Spanish, participate in an academic study abroad of at least four weeks or a semester, and create a significant research project related to some aspect of Latin American culture.

The Cornerstone Project

Students create a Cornerstone Project, a major work in which they demonstrate mastery of specific learning objectives or broader academic achievement. They can include traditional academic products such as a thesis and oral defense, multimedia presentations, gallery exhibitions, performances, physical products, and portfolios. Students make a major professional presentation of the completed work in their junior year, with additional data collection and perhaps an internship in the senior year with a final exhibition. The project is often a significant part of a student’s college application. It is important to note that students are not required to continue their cornerstone project in subsequent years and may pursue new interests in each successive year, though this is not ideal.

The Wellness Program

Our Wellness program demonstrates our commitment to our students’ spiritual, psychological, and physical well-being. Adolescents need time for reflection on what kind of person she aspires to be, whether she is making the right choices about courses, activities, and relationships, what her responsibility is to the community, what defines the successful human being, and how she wishes to shape her life. In the later years, our

Planning for College & Beyond

Planning for College and Beyond is a program which helps our students reflect on those things they do well and enjoy and how these might take shape as a path (or a segment of one) to adulthood. Students must have guidance and time to reflect as part of their well-being. The Wellness program also helps students to cultivate lifelong habits for the development of physical, spiritual and emotional health: balance, self-regulation, stress management, the operation and interrelation of the various systems of the body, maintenance of healthy weight, the effects of exercise, nutrition, and drugs (from over the counter and prescription pharmaceuticals to herbal supplements and substances, illicit drugs and alcohol), and the cultivation of healthy relationships.

9th Grade

Ninth graders will typically engage in a course of study that includes:

Math on their appropriate level, from Algebra to Calculus

Lab Science

Research and Presentation Skills

Spanish (or a language of their choice through Middlebury College or another provider)

World Humanities, in which students study the history and literature of the world and the development of world religions with a special focus on the role of women

Wellness

Arts

A Certificate Program Elective. This allows the student to specialize in a systematic exploration of a field and graduate with a certificate. Tracks are determined by student interest and may include Business/Entrepreneurship, Computer Science, Individual Research Project, Global / Area Studies, and Environmental Studies.

10th Grade

Tenth graders typically create a program to include:

Math on their appropriate level, from Algebra to Calculus

Lab Science

Spanish (or a language of their choice through Middlebury College or another provider)

Humanities, in which students study the history and literature of the United States and the integral roles that religion and women have played in its development.

Wellness

Arts or other Elective

A Certificate Program Elective. This allows the student to specialize in a systematic exploration of a field and graduate with a certificate. Tracks are determined by student interest and may include Business/Entrepreneurship, Computer Science, Individual Research Project, Global / Area Studies, and Environmental Studies

Tenth graders also begin to develop their Cornerstone Project.

11th Grade

Eleventh graders devote a great deal of time and effort to their Cornerstone Projects.
As one might expect of students preparing to leave the nest, twelfth graders have considerable latitude in what they study.

S. Government – students work on an election campaign of their choice in the fall term to participate in the democratic process

Economics in the spring term.

They may continue to study Science (Intriguing choices include Molecular Gastronomy: The Science of Food and a field-based course on The Massachusetts Bay)

They may continue to Spanish (or a language of their choice through Middlebury College or another provider)

They may continue to study Social Science through an Elective (Lots to choose from: Women in World Religions and Criminal Justice for All)

Wellness/ Financial Literacy – students learn to create and understand a budget and basic household finance

A Certificate Program Elective. This allows the student to specialize in a systematic exploration of a field and graduate with a certificate. Tracks are determined by student interest and may include Business/Entrepreneurship, Computer Science, Individual

12th Grade

As one might expect of students preparing to leave the nest, twelfth graders have considerable latitude in what they study.

S. Government – students work on an election campaign of their choice in the fall term to participate in the democratic process

Economics in the spring term.

They may continue to study Science (Intriguing choices include Molecular Gastronomy: The Science of Food and a field-based course on The Massachusetts Bay)

They may continue to Spanish (or a language of their choice through Middlebury College or another provider)

They may continue to study Social Science through an Elective (Lots to choose from: Women in World Religions and Criminal Justice for All)

Wellness/ Financial Literacy – students learn to create and understand a budget and basic household finance

A Certificate Program Elective. This allows the student to specialize in a systematic exploration of a field and graduate with a certificate. Tracks are determined by student interest and may include Business/Entrepreneurship, Computer Science, Individual

Twelfth graders receive a great deal of help with college applications—it’s built right into the schedule! And they can engage in internships and/or dual enrollment.

The Academy at Penguin Hall is fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools, the Association of Independent Schools in New England, and the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools. We are an independent, all-girls, college preparatory high school whose mission is to educate, enlighten and empower young women to live and to lead exemplary lives.